Google and a music royalty collection society in Britain have failed to reach a rights agreement, effectively eliminating access to YouTube's music videos in the UK.
PRS for Music, the collection society that represents over 50,000 composers, wanted "many, many times" more for licensing than the previous agreement, which has now expired, Patrick Walker wrote at the official YouTube Blog. "The costs are simply prohibitive for us -- under PRS's proposed terms we would lose significant amounts of money with every playback," Walker added.
A "lack of transparency" also led to disagreements between the two groups, Walker wrote. PRS for Music won't tell YouTube what songs are included in the new license, and Walker said that's akin to "asking a consumer to buy an unmarked CD without knowing what musicians are on it.."
For its part, PRS for Music struck back with a statement of its own. "PRS for Music is outraged on behalf of consumers and songwriters that Google has chosen to close down access to music videos on YouTube in the UK," the company said. Further, the statement alleges that Google pulled out of the deal in the middle of negotiations, without consulting PRS first. CEO Steve Porter said he was "shocked and disappointed" to get the call from Google.
The statement concludes by pointing out that Google pulled in $5.7 billion in revenue in the last quarter of 2008 -- a skewed statistic to be sure, as it doesn't pertain solely to YouTube -- perhaps to subtlely suggest that the megacompany is a greedy entity.
In other words, it's not a pretty situation. Google seems to be in the power position here, with PRS urging the company to reconsider, and Walker writing that negotiations aren't totally dead. The government has also stepped in, with Lord Carter, the minister for communications, technology and broadcasting, accusing both sides of "posturing." For now, though, Brits will have to get their music videos elsewhere. MTV Music, perhaps?
